TEL AVIV, June 1: Amid intense new diplomatic efforts to kick start peace talks, Israel maintained military pressure on the West Bank, reoccupying most of Nablus and sending troops back into Bethlehem and other places to hunt for Palestinian fighters.
The army was conducting for the second straight day a vast operation in Nablus and its neighbouring Balata refugee camp, where on Friday troops rounded up hundreds of Palestinians for questioning. Most were later released.
A 23-year-old Palestinian was killed by an Israeli sniper in the Old City of Nablus during the operation, Palestinian hospital sources said.
The army also blew up the home of the family of Jihad Titi, an 18-year old who carried out a suicide attack on Petah Tiqvah, a Tel Aviv suburb, that left two Israelis dead and more than 20 wounded last Monday.
But Palestinian witnesses in the camp said the army had only blown a hole in the side of Titi’s house, but an army bulldozer was still outside.
An Israeli army spokesman earlier said that troops had arrested seven Palstinians in the Tammun area, near Nablus, and another during a raid by soldiers and armoured vehicles into Bethlehem’s Dheishe refugee camp.
Palestinian witnesses said some 30 people were rounded up in Tammun after more than two dozen tanks and armoured vehicles imposed a curfew on the area.
The operations are the latest of Israel’s frequent raids into Palestinian self-rule towns and among its largest since May 10, when it ended the first stage of a massive West Bank sweep for Palestinians.
Israeli troops backed by dozens of armoured vehicles also reoccupied the northern town of Tulkarem late Friday, Palestinian officials said. But the Israeli army said it had only carried out a “routine patrol” in Tulkarem.
Israel’s latest “pinpoint raids” came as suicide bombers returned to Israeli cities after a short lull following the first phase of the West Bank campaign.
However, the Palestinians say the raids are aimed at further undermining their autonomy.
They also come amid a flurry of diplomatic activity to end the fighting.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana met Arafat on Saturday and then lobbied for a proposed Middle East peace conference.
“We are very concerned about the situation on the ground, about the suffering of the people and we would like to see all this situation changed,” Solana told reporters after the talks at Arafat’s West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.
“For that, we are trying to put forward a new political initiative that can move towards a situation in which all this suffering will disappear,” he said.
“I have found President Arafat very determined to move in this direction and I am pleased to hear that,” he said.
Solana was referring to the proposal for a conference which was raised in May by US Secretary of State Colin Powell with the support of the United Nations, the EU and Russia.
Solana, due to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday, had said the conference should be held before the end of next month.
Arafat earlier met with the head of the Egyptian intelligence service.
Egypt and the United States have been cooperating on plans to reform the chaotic Palestinian security services, and US Central Intelligence Agency chief George Tenet is expected in the region on Monday.
In Egypt, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had talks with President Hosni Mubarak on how to end the seemingly intractable conflict.—AFP